Interesting Disaster Stories

[Blue Mountain]

I hate to be picky here, but the Frank slide is actually in Alberta. It's now a provincial historic site.

Go right ahead and be picky! I've visited the site only once myself, and because it was "in the mountains" I simply thought BC. I keep forgetting there are mountains in Alberta as well.

 

[truethat]

No fighting and persnickitiness in this thread!!! One day when you are bored you will appreciate it!

 

[Pulvinar]

I hate to be picky here, but the Frank slide is actually in Alberta. It's now a provincial historic site.

Interesting how the highway cuts right through the rubble field:

maps.google.com

 

[Battman]

Subsequently, 11 years later and right next door to The Frank Slide, this happened:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillcrest_mine_disaster
And to think, people still actually live here.

Oh, and BTW, I quit being so lazy and found this on the Texas City disaster. This one really fascinates me for some reason.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM7zRSxt584

 

[KatieG]

Not the best holiday celebration. So many children died.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Slocum

 

[truethat]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uz2GvDJHMg&feature=related

Galveston's Hurricane

 

[ddt]

The North Sea flood of 1953 is the largest natural disaster hitting the Netherlands in centuries, costing nearly 2,000 lives. It led to the large Delta Works project which closed all but two of the mouths of the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt estuary.

Nobody mentioned Katrina yet?

 

[KatieG]

This was one of the theater related disasters that scares me the most. FIRE!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroquois_Fire

 

[EventHorizon]

Speaking of fires, this one scared the hell out of me:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Station_nightclub_fire

The videos they showed on the news in the following days of people stacked up on top of one another, trapped in the entrances still haunt me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jae1fglq-9g

 

[erwinl]

Speaking of fires, this one scared the hell out of me:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Station_nightclub_fire

The videos they showed on the news in the following days of people stacked up on top of one another, trapped in the entrances still haunt me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jae1fglq-9g

I've seen this video before.

What is so eery is that that you see how packed the club is and that the time between the fire starting and the cameraman exiting the club is so short.
From the moment he turns around to film the exit he just used, almost nobody gets out anymore.

 

[erwinl]

The Aberfan disaster.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aberfan_disaster

Also a lesson about how not to treat the surviviors and the family of the victims.

 

[Stellafane]

The Silver Bridge disaster is interesting because it's always been associated with Mothman, who had been regularly spotted in the area for the 12 months leading up to the disaster but was apparently never seen again afterward.

There's also the Cocoanut Grove fire which supposedly led to complete reform of fire safety codes.

 

[Polaris]

The Tri-State Tornado of 1925 killed nearly 700 people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tri-State_Tornado

 

[Delscottio]

The Bradford City FC fire http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11UP99uHMuI - 5:46 is particularly harrowing.

The back story of failings within the stadium is shocking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradford_City_stadium_fire#Fire

 

[truethat]

The Aberfan disaster.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aberfan_disaster

Also a lesson about how not to treat the surviviors and the family of the victims.

I forgot about this one, it is a shocking story. Horrifying.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVsxVo26AoU



http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=145016

 

[Battman]

Time for a bump.
This one is interesting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_Iraq_poison_grain_disaster

 

[shemp]

These all pale in comparison to the Greatest Disaster Ever:

 

[Cheezey D]

King's Cross Fire.

Can't post URLs yet but if you google it there are plenty of entries. Must have been horrific for anyone involved.

D

 

[truethat]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King's_Cross_fire

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The story of Flight 33 is down-right spooky.